BUS603: Managing People

The 7Cs seek to define the seven foundational human capacities for leaders (and people practitioners everywhere) to lead and work well. These are the capacities, which are more likely to facilitate change and transformation.

The 7Cs have been developed through observed practice of delivering over 3,000 hours of executive coaching and supervision practice, through extensive reading, writing and research, and by applying and testing the findings of the research.

The 7Cs uniquely focus on the inside out vertical learning needed to develop the foundational human capacities for inspiring and leading deep change rather than just the more traditional focus on outside in horizontal learning for capability and competence development. Both are needed, but the emphasis needs to shift.

Capacity is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as:

"the power of containing, receiving, experiencing or producing"

It is the space and spaciousness that leaders can learn to create within themselves to side step ego, default behaviors, assumptions and narrow Preconceived mindsets. Because it is these which fearfully want to maintain the status quo, seek control and impose rapid fire solutions. Capacity complements capability, which the OED defines as:

"the power of action, of acting".

The 7C's map therefore focuses on the being of the leader in order to complement, inform and shape their doing. Capacities shape the source and being of the leader and are the energy, which shapes how their capabilities are enacted. Because "WHO you are is HOW you lead" (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Difference between horizontal learning for knowledge and capability development and vertical learning for personal capacities for transformation.

The 7Cs are Care, Curiosity, Courage, Compassion, Connection, Contemplation and Creativity© and are shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. 7Cs "Reflect to Create" leadership capacities map©.

Each of the 7Cs is defined and described in turn and will be illustrated by a few core questions to bring each capacity alive.

Capacity 1: Care

Caring is at the heart of being and at the heart of our humanity. Passion is overrated and cannot always be sustained. What, who and how we care defines us.

Caring (and taking care) with people, issues, choices and decisions is a fundamental expression of our deeper purpose, meaning, values and integrity in action. It also shows up in how we are experienced by others.

Caring sets the compass for authentic, ethical and compassionate leadership. Leadership is relational. Leading is about relationships. Leaders earn trust; it is not given. As Cashman writes:

"Leadership is not simply something we do. It comes from somewhere inside us. Leadership is a process, an intimate expression of who we are. It is our being in action".

Core questions to explore this capacity are:
What do you care about?
Why do you choose to lead?
Do you care enough about this?
Is this decision ethical?

Capacity 2: Curiosity

Curiosity drives inquiry, questioning and learning. Curiosity keeps leaders open and receptive. The human brain loves questions. Curiosity keeps leaders awake, alerts to their blind spots, avoids complacency, questions the status quo and drives creativity and innovation.

Curiosity's questioning puts leaders and their teams at the edge of their learning, challenging the known, assumed and expert in order to explore other possibilities, perspectives and potential. It enables leaders to sense and lean into what is wanting and needing to emerge. As Einstein wrote:

"The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality".

Core questions to explore this capacity are as follows:
What are you curious about?
When was the last time you were truly surprised or discovered something new?
Where are your blocks or blind spots?
What is emerging?
Who can give you honest feedback?

Capacity 3: Courage

Courage in English is derived from "Coeur", which means "heart" in French. Courage comes from the intelligence of the heart to be brave, bold and fearless for wise action.

Courage enables leaders to move forward whilst also being aware of their vulnerabilities, fears and risks. Leaders with courage feel the future and act upon it, comfortable to prototype and test and to learn. According to Coco Chanel:

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud".

Core questions to explore this capacity are as follows:
What are you called to do?
What are you here for?
What do you really want to create in your life?
What is needed right now?

Capacity 4: Compassion

Compassion is the capacity to connect to yourself, to others and to be aware of our shared humanity.

Compassion is not just empathy. Compassion is the capacity to be with and to connect to the feelings of others whilst also staying centered and connected to self.

Compassion is the awareness of the inter‐relatedness of everything. People exist in relationship. Compassion is the capacity to embrace all of what it means to be fully human: the vulnerabilities, the joys, the losses and the celebrations, which accompany an everyday life. As the poet John Donne wrote:
"No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee".

Core questions to explore this capacity are as follows:
How do you show your compassion?
How, who and what do you judge?
What touched you most today?
How honest are you about your own vulnerabilities and how they show up in your work?

Capacity 5: Connection

Connection is the capacity to see the deeper underlying and universal inter‐connections in and between all of life. Connection is the capacity to appreciate, value and work our intimate interconnections with all living things across the dimensions of past, present and future.

Connection gives us a bigger perspective, purpose and sense of belonging within the world and the work we do. It also bestows an awareness of how our actions can affect others and our planet. As Einstein wrote:

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us the 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and his feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness.

This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free to ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty".

Core questions to explore this capacity are as follows:
When, how and why did you last feel a deep connection with someone or something?
What did this connection feel like?
What happened?
How did your perspective alter?
How would you describe your connection with your team/organization?

Capacity 6: Contemplation

Contemplation is the capacity to learn to turn away from the endless busyness, rush and noise of everyday living to tune into ourselves, to be with ourselves and hear ourselves think.

Contemplation is the capacity to listen deeply to ourselves, to sit with and to be with issues, trusting that in time - and with time - that our own inner wisdom and knowing will surface. It is the capacity to be fully and mindfully present in the moment. This stills the ego and our strategic minds in order that we can listen to all of our other and perhaps quieter bodily, heart‐based and soulful intelligences. As Parker Palmer [36] describes the soul as like a wild animal, he writes:

"The soul is like a wild animal… whilst tough, resilient and resourceful, savvy and self‐sufficient ….. it is also shy.. and will only come out when it is safe to do so…"

Core questions to explore this capacity are as follows:
Do you create the time and space to tune into yourself?
How do you listen to yourself think?
What are you holding onto that you need to let go off to see afresh?

Capacity 7: Creativity

Creativity is the capacity to break old patterns and habitual ways of being, seeing, relating, learning and working to create anew. Creativity is the capacity to bring the new into the world - be it a new product, idea, insight or way of working - while also being deeply respectful of past efforts, which have brought the individual or team to the point of a new creative breakthrough.

As George Lois an American Art Director said:

"Creativity can solve any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything".

Creativity thrives where there is time and space for care, curiosity, courage, compassion, connection and contemplation to blend and work its magic.

Core questions to explore this capacity are as follows:
What inspires you?
What are the seeds of the future in the present here and now?
How can you bring more light and playfulness into your work to enable creativity to flourish?